Introducing… WME (We Make Everything)

We meet Guy Furious, one-third of hotly tipped songwriting and production team WME who’ve signed a publishing deal with BMG Chrysalis

Name: Guy Furious, Tom Smith and Stephen Chase

Location: Luton, UK

Style: Motown meets Bruno Mars, via The Dream

Look out for: The Good Company EP released under the name of lead member Guy Furious

Not to be confused with the American talent agency William Morris Endeavor, this WME is a songwriting and production team consisting of three fresh-faced musicians from the UK – Guy Furious, Tom Smith and Stephen Chase. Officially starting out towards the beginning of 2012, WME is a relatively new outfit, but the trio started playing music together at the age of 15 years old. As lead member Guy explains, they clicked and complemented each other musically: “We’re all songwriters, so we get a vibe and see how it goes. I do the production side of things and Steve does the vocals, but can all play instruments as well – I play piano and drums, and Tom and Steve both play guitar and piano.”

Guy and Tom both grew up in Luton and studied music technology together at the same college, before meeting Exeter-based Stephen through a mutual friend. Despite being based over 200 miles apart, they’ve continued to write and produce tracks together ever since. “When we were at university we had an apartment with a bedroom studio. Steve would come from Exeter for a week and we’d work every day for 24 hours straight, laying down as many songs as possible. It definitely made us concentrate and get to work, especially when we had our management team saying they needed tracks for Rihanna!”

The group honed their sound of modern R&B, urban and soul, inspired by classic Motown. Then, using music network Blazetrak, the team submitted a demo and made contact with a management company in Atlanta. It was a speculative trip to meet them that ultimately resulted in signing with BMG Chrysalis. “We took a punt and spent all the money we had to get out there, but we met the right people and that’s how we got our publishing deal. I guess it’s the risk you’ve got to take.”

This wasn’t the first taste of mainstream success for Guy – he’d already produced official remixes for the likes of Nicole Scherzinger and Far East Movement. Considering this, and with their last EP being released under his name, it’s perhaps unclear whether WME exists as a ‘behind-the-scenes’ songwriting team, or whether they’d rather step into the spotlight individually. And it seems we’re not the only ones to be a bit confused. “When we went to America, the first thing that anyone would say to us in the studios was, ‘Are you guys a group?’ Even our management were looking to get us deals as artists,” admits Guy. However, he soon clarifies that they “always wanted to establish ourselves as songwriters first, and then hopefully go down the artist route later.”

So with 2012 marking the start of WME, and 2013 seeing them sign with a major publisher, it begs the question: what could 2014 hold for this new urban triumvirate? “We’re looking to make the move to Atlanta in January. Once we get over there I think that’s going to be the real starting point when placements and other things start to materialise. When you’re around the studios meeting people face-to-face, a lot tends to happen quickly.”